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  Frangible fiberglass insulation battsRelated Patent Categories: Stock Material Or Miscellaneous Articles, Sheet, Web, Or Layer Weakened To Permit Separation Through ThicknessThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060188682. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/407,397, which was filed Apr. 4, 2003, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,979,381 on Dec. 27, 2005, and which claimed priority under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/372,121, filed Apr. 12, 2002, the disclosures of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. BACKGROUND [0002] The present disclosure relates to apparatus and methods for producing fiberglass insulation batts, and in particular, batts of fiberglass insulation suitable for use in building construction. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to fiberglass insulation batts that are configured to be converted into separate fiberglass insulation strips of various predetermined widths in the field without the use of cutting tools. [0003] Fiberglass insulation is made of glass fibers held together by a binder. Glass fibers are produced by melting sand or recycled glass products and spinning those materials to produce tiny strands of fiberglass. Glass fibers will not stick together unless they are glued or bound together. A binder is an adhesive material that holds fibers together, allowing them to keep their shape or overall form. Fiberglass insulation is made, for example, by spraying a binder on the glass fibers. After being cured in an oven, the binder holds the fibers together. [0004] A batt is a blanket of fiberglass insulation used to insulate residential and commercial buildings. Some batts include a paper or foil facing material affixed to the fiberglass insulation, and other batts do not include any facing material. [0005] According to the present disclosure, a frangible fiberglass insulation batt includes a pair of fiberglass strips arranged to lie in side-by-side relation to one another and a frangible polymerized binder bridge spanning a gap between the fiberglass strips and retaining the fiberglass strips in side-by-side relation. Although glass fibers and binder are present in normal amounts in the fiberglass strips, an insubstantial amount of glass fibers is present in the binder bridge. Thus, internal bonds of the binder bridge are relatively weak in comparison to internal bonds of the fiberglass strips. [0006] In the field at a construction site, a worker can separate one of the fiberglass strips (included in the frangible fiberglass insulation batt according to the present disclosure) from the other of the strips by pulling one strip laterally away from the other strip using a "peeling away" action owing to relatively weak internal bonds in the frangible polymerized binder bridge. No tools are needed to accomplish such separation of the two fiberglass strips. [0007] A method of producing such a frangible fiberglass insulation batt comprises the steps of passing a stream of uncured fiberglass insulation through a cutter to form two side-by-side fiberglass strips and then passing the two side-by-side strips through a curing oven. In the curing oven, heat generated in the oven causes binder associated with opposing longitudinally extending side walls of the strips to polymerize in a gap between the two side-by-side strips to establish the frangible polymerized binder bridge. This binder bridge spans the gap and retains the two fiberglass strips in fixed relation to one another until the frangible polymerized binder bridge is torn along its length by a construction worker in the field. [0008] Additional features of the present disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0009] The detailed description particularly refers to the accompanying figures in which: [0010] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of methods in accordance with the present disclosure for producing a frangible fiberglass insulation batt (that can be separated by hand into strips having predetermined widths) by cutting an uncured fiberglass batt in a "cutter", then curing that fiberglass batt in a "curing oven" to cause adjacent insulation strips produced by the cutter to bond together to establish a frangible plane therebetween, and then using either a "strip marker" or "facing apparatus" to indicate the location of the frangible planes in the cured fiberglass batt; [0011] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a frangible fiberglass insulation batt formed to include two frangible planes extending along the length of the batt so that the batt can be "broken" manually along the two frangible planes to produce three separate insulation strips without the use of cutting tools; [0012] FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a first system for producing a frangible fiberglass insulation batt, which system uses a conveyor to move fiberglass insulation (in a direction from left to right) along a path so that the fiberglass insulation is intercepted by, in sequence, a pair of cutters for cutting the insulation to form three separate insulation strips, a curing oven for polymerizing a binder coating glass fibers included in the insulation strips to form a frangible bridge substantially made of polymerized binder and spanning the gap between each pair of side-by-side insulation strips, and a strip marker for applying indicator lines to the fiberglass insulation to indicate the location of the frangible planes formed in the fiberglass insulation batt and established by the polymerized binder bridges; [0013] FIG. 4 is a top plan view of a second system for producing a frangible fiberglass insulation batt, which system uses a conveyor to move fiberglass insulation along a path so that the fiberglass insulation is intercepted by, in sequence, a fiberglass-compacting strip press, a pair of cutters, a curing oven, and a strip marker; [0014] FIG. 5 is a top plan view of a third system for producing a frangible fiberglass insulation batt, which system uses a conveyor to move fiberglass insulation so that the fiberglass insulation is intercepted by, in sequence, a pair of cutters, a curing oven, and a facing apparatus for applying a facing material (pre-marked with indicator lines) drawn off a supply roll to a top surface of the now-cured fiberglass insulation batt to align the indicator lines on the facing material with the frangible planes formed in the cured fiberglass insulation batt; [0015] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a system similar to the system illustrated in FIG. 3 showing a pair of cutter disks mounted to lie above a roller located between two sections of a conveyor and arranged to slice all of the way through uncured fiberglass insulation moving with the conveyor before the uncured fiberglass insulation is cured in the curing oven; [0016] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a system similar to the system illustrated in FIG. 6 showing use of a motorized rotary-driven power cutter to form a series of cuts extending all of the way through the fiberglass insulation to define separated side-by-side strips of fiberglass insulation "upstream" of the curing oven; and [0017] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a system similar to the system illustrated in FIG. 4 showing the use of a "strip press" to compress the uncured fiberglass insulation to a compacted thickness and the use of nozzles to direct streams of pressurized fluid onto the compacted fiberglass insulation to form cuts extending all of the way through the compacted fiberglass insulation to define separated side-by-side strips of fiberglass upstream of the curing oven. DETAILED DESCRIPTION [0018] Apparatus and methods are disclosed herein for producing a fiberglass insulation batt that is not slitted when it is delivered to a construction site yet is formed to include longitudinally extending frangible planes therein to enable construction workers to convert the unslitted fiberglass insulation batt into separate fiberglass insulation strips of various predetermined widths in the field without the use of cutting tools. A "batt" is a blanket of thermal insulation usually comprising glass fibers. [0019] Relatively weak internal bonds are established during manufacture of the fiberglass insulation batt to define the longitudinally extending frangible planes using apparatus and methods described herein. These internal bonds are strong enough to hold the fiberglass insulation batt "together in one piece" during transport from inventory to a construction site and yet are weak enough to allow a construction worker to separate one longitudinally extending strip in the batt from an adjacent longitudinally extending strip in the batt manually and without the use of cutting tools. [0020] Various methods are suggested diagrammatically in FIG. 1 for producing a frangible fiberglass insulation batt 10 shown, for example, in FIG. 2. Batt 10 is formed using apparatus and methods disclosed herein to include two longitudinally extending frangible planes 12, 14 which are arranged to lie in spaced-apart parallel relation to one another to "partition" batt 10 into three formative longitudinally extending strips 21, 22, and 23. [0021] In the field at a construction site, a worker can separate first strip 21 from second strip 22 along first frangible plane 14 by pulling one strip laterally away from the other strip using a "peeling-away" action owing to relatively weak internal bonds established along first frangible plane 12 between fiberglass material comprising first and second strips 21, 22. Likewise, a worker can separate third strip 23 from second strip 22 along second frangible plane 12 by pulling one of those strips away from the other of those strips in a similar manner owing to relatively weak internal bonds established along second frangible plane 14 between fiberglass material comprising second and third strips 22, 23. Continue reading... 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